Free Republic

Far-left activists and illegal migrants invaded the Basilica of Saint-Denis on Sunday to protest the French government’s new asylum law before they were forcibly removed by police, resulting in evening mass being cancelled. Around 80 illegal migrants and far-left activists from the group Coordination des Sans-Papiers (CSP 75) protested the new law holding up banners, Le Parisien reports. After around an hour of occupying the Basilica, police were called and arrived to remove the protestors and illegal immigrants. The area was cleared by around 5:30 pm but evening mass was cancelled in case the protestors returned.

Austria’s Constitutional Court says it will consider whether a third gender should be an option for official records, taking up the case of a person who unsuccessfully sought to have their entry changed to “inter” or a similar word. The court said in a statement on Monday that an initial review raised concerns that having to list one’s gender as female or male contravenes the privacy protections enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. …

After a few committed months of hot yoga at a studio in New York, Christina Rice had found her niche. So when the studio announced that it was offering teacher training, she signed right up. It was only when she arrived with her mat that she noticed something striking. There were 54 other women and men in the 10-week course, and not one of them looked like her. She was the lone African American in the class.

A 9-year-old boy fatally shot his 13-year-old sister Saturday (March 17) in northeast Mississippi after she refused to hand over a video game controller, The Clarion-Ledger reports. Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell told the Jackson, Mississippi, newspaper the boy is accused of shooting his sister in the back of the head with a .25 caliber handgun. The girl was rushed to Le Bonheur's Children's Hospital in Memphis where she died Sunday at 6:45 p.m.Authorities don't yet know how the child had access to the weapon they say he used to shoot his sister. It's also unclear how much knowledge the...

Health care is perhaps Canada’s defining obsession. As a nation, we crow about it and complain about it. We deify Tommy Douglas, rage about wait times, fret over private clinics and fight campaigns on minute points of privatization. But for all the endless studies, Royal Commissions and political bloviating, it can be hard to know how much Canadians actually pay for health care, not as a nation, but as individuals. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) believes Canada spent approximately $228 billion on health care in 2016. That’s 11.1 per cent of Canada’s entire GDP and $6,299 for every...

When Tifanny Abreu slammed the volleyball over the net, her frizzy ponytail flying behind her, most spectators at a recent game moaned out loud: another point for the visitors. But not everyone in the stands was rooting against her. Even when Ms. Abreu travels with her team to away games, she often has a small, loyal group of fans cheering her on. This game in a satellite city of São Paulo, played more than 200 miles away from her team’s home base, was no exception.

The Global Slavery Index provides a map, country by country, of the estimated prevalence of modern slavery, together with information about the steps each government has taken to respond to this issue. This information allows an objective comparison and assessment of both the problem and adequacy of the response in 167 countries.

Bruce is a 56-year-old man who’s never eaten a vegetable in his life. His mom claims she fed him pureed peas when he was a baby, but he’s not buying it. “I’ll straight up gag if I try to swallow vegetables,” he says. “Every single time.” So now the Scranton, PA father of two subsists primarily on chicken. “Lots and lots of chicken,” he explains — typically oven-roasted with a generous side of mashed potatoes, rice or noodles. When Bruce isn’t biting into one of the 8 billion chickens consumed in the U.S. every year (and washing it down with “oodles and...

Mystery surrounds Robert Mueller and his investigation into Russia and President Trump. Some think he is the ultimate professional, others that he is a Democrat lackey, still others maintain he is working on Trump’s side. We can see how he works if we look at how Mueller ran his second-most important investigation as FBI Director. In September of 2001, an entity began mailing anthrax through the US Postal system, hitting such prominent targets as NBC and Senator Daschle’s office. The terrorist attacks killed five and left others hospitalized. The world panicked.

Subsidies reduce motivation, distort the education market, and often end up reducing students’ motivation. The “free college” movement, fueled to a large degree by Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential bid, is a response to concerns about increasing college-tuition rates, concomitant stagnation in state and federal grants, and a corresponding student-loan debt load that has ballooned to roughly $1.4 trillion. Indeed, inflation-adjusted data provided by the College Board shows that the average sticker price of higher-education tuition (excluding room and board) over the past ten years has increased 32 percent for two-year public colleges, 37 percent for four-year public colleges,...

Opening the menu at the California Grill at Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort overlooking the Magic Kingdom, I expected to giggle at the affordability of everything. I’m a New Yorker. Nothing out here in the sticks costs as much as it does back home, right? Instead, I found $19 glasses of wine and a $75 rib-eye. If you’re a person of average means, a trip to Disney World could leave you bippity-boppity broke. Disney World, that enchanted land of middle class dreams, isn’t so middle-class anymore. So why is it more popular than ever? Fort Mickey is exhibit A for...

Anyone who has raised children knows that it's a messy, trial-and-error process, with an emphasis on "error." It's hard enough to do well with two parents, a reasonably stable and sane marriage and a reliable income. When there's only one parent with a meager income, the burdens mount and feed on themselves. That's one reason why the growth of single-parent households is rightly regarded as one cause of poverty. Or so I thought. Naturally, I was shocked recently to read in The New York Times — with all the Times' authority — an opinion essay headlined, "Single Mothers Are Not...

A landmark lawsuit has been filed by an Ontario man suffering from an incurable neurological disease. He alleges that health officials will not provide him with an assisted home care team of his choosing, instead offering, among other things, medically assisted death. "My condition is grievous and irremediable,” 42-year-old Roger Foley said from his bed at the London Health Science Centre’s Victoria Hospital in a video that was recently posted online. “But the solution is assisted life with self-directed funding.”

“I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know … I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ ” That, as reported by The Washington Post, was Donald Trump boasting during a private fund-raising dinner about lying to Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, our northern neighbor and closest ally. When caught in the lie, Trump did what Trump does: Repeats the lie, louder, stronger, and more stridently. After the lie was reported, Trump tweeted: “We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of...

The shocking footage, shared on Twitter by one of the priests witnessing the act, shows the moment when local Communist Party chiefs use a crane to remove the last cross standing on top of the Shangqiu Catholic Church South Cathedral in the country's Henan Province. An unidentified group are said to have burst into the church without any official documentation or notice and occupied it by securing the doors and shutting down electrical power. Priest and nuns reported the intruders to the police in vain, as the authorities once arrived confiscated their phone and quarantined them, barring anyone from entering...

Scientists have uncovered 20 genes linked to being transgender – supporting claims that the condition has a physical basis. Researchers believe the gene variations may contribute to people identifying with the opposite sex. Critics of transgender identity say the condition is ‘all in the mind’, and transgender people have a psychological problem rather than a medical one. But by highlighting genetic mutations that affect brain development, the latest findings point towards transgender identity having a physical basis.

With clients that included princes, artists and a future King of England, these are the women who ruled Paris from their bed. Fascinating pictures reveal the prostitutes who featured in 'The Pretty Women of Paris' - the nineteenth century directory for the French capital's best courtesans and brothels. Published in 1883 and limited to 169 copies, the notorious guide listed the names of the city's most famous scarlet women - along with their addresses, qualities and faults.

A 23-year-old British model is set to become the first transgender man to front a campaign meant to break the stigma of female menstrual periods. Transgender model Kenny Jones is the face of U.K.-based women’s product company Pink Parcel’s “#ImOn” campaign. The campaign, the company says, is intended “to change perceptions and smash the misconceptions on periods,” which makes Kenny “the first transgender man in the world to be part of a period campaign!”

Harry has reportedly refused to sign a prenuptial agreement months before his wedding to Meghan Markle. Daily Mail writer Richard Eden claimed that Prince Harry could lose his $41 million fortune because of his decision to not sign an agreement. One of Eden’s friends told him, “There was never a question in Harry’s mind that he would sign a prenup. He’s determined that his marriage will be a lasting one, so there’s no need for him to sign anything.” Eden’s statements came after rumors swirled that the royal family is worried about Prince Harry’s fortune especially since Markle is a...

On Sunday night, John Oliver trolled the heck out of Vice President Mike Pence—or “whatever the exact opposite of a ‘silver fox’ is.” On Monday, the vice president’s family will be releasing Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President, a children’s book told from the perspective of their pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo. And so, as a “f*** you” to Pence, the British comedian decided to release his own Marlon Bundo children’s book on Sunday night. “It turns out, in a complete coincidence, we also wrote a book about Mike Pence’s rabbit that is also being published. In...